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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26185057">droplets</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinkmelk/pseuds/pinkmelk'>pinkmelk</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Boyz (Korea Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fluff, LITERALLY, This is my first time posting, accidental bag switch, alright idk what to tag this, hyunjae is in love with jacob, hyunjae is the shyest(? is that a word) boy ever, ill introduce more tbz as i go, jacob the sweetest boy in the world, kevin actually is there if you count his name being written down, milcob, milcob 5ever, the boyz - Freeform, this is just fluff</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 05:21:42</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,531</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26185057</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinkmelk/pseuds/pinkmelk</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The boy smiled to himself, playing with the idea that that boy had been staring at him just moments ago, before heading back to his table, grabbing his bag, and heading the opposite direction of said boy.</p><p>Neither of them noticed the similarity in their bags nor that they had grabbed the wrong one.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Bae Joonyoung | Jacob/Lee Jaehyun | Hyunjae</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>25</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. rain</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hello! This is my first au so I hope you like it! I literally wrote this purely so I could make Hyunjae shy and cute, so indulge me.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was raining that day. Puddles covered the sidewalks, and no matter how lightly Hyunjae seemed to walk, every step caused a splash of water to coat the bottom of his jeans, socks far gone by the time he reached the tiny cafe. He had forgotten his umbrella, and his shoulders were shaking from the chill of the water, his shirt completely wet. </p><p>When he entered the cafe, a warm feeling spread throughout his entire body, a sigh escaping his purplish lips. He slid into a chair at the edge of the room, facing the window and hoping the rain would let up soon.</p><p>After allowing himself a few minutes to recover from what he believes was almost freezing to death, he walked to the counter and ordered a hot chai tea. When he wrapped his fingers around the cup, he once again let out a sigh of contentment. </p><p>Sure, his hair was still dripping droplets of water onto his face and shoulders, and his socks were soggy, making his feet ache, but that little warmth from the drink filled his entire body with relief.</p><p>He sat for a moment with his eyes closed, fingers wrapped around the steaming cup stealing all the warmth he could from it. When the bell at the door suddenly went off, he opened his eyes to see a boy in a similar state to himself, dyed blonde hair dripping wet and covering his eyes. It was then that the boy shook himself suddenly, like a dog after a bath, and when he looked up, the smile on his face filled Hyunjae with the same warmth the cozy room or hot drink did.</p><p>He closed his eyes again.</p><p>Hyunjae didn’t want to stare at the cute blond boy with a winning smile that seemed to radiate comfort.</p><p>He felt peace for a few minutes when suddenly  he heard a chair scrap against the ground and bump his table. His eyes popped open, brow creasing in his effort to find who had caused the disruption. </p><p>He looked up to find the blond boy’s face quickly shifting into panic, already whispering quiet apologies under his breath. Hyunjae smiled, hoping to ease his panic, reassuring him that no harm had come from his accidental bump.</p><p>The boy sighed and sent a small smile Hyunjae’s way before issuing one more sorry and plopping down on the chair he had pulled out. Hyunjae then noticed that the boy had dark roots hiding beneath the blond. His mouth quirked up, finding random happiness at that thought.</p><p>Hyunjae went back to minding his business, but couldn’t help stealing a few glances every once in a while. Once to see him get up and head towards the bathroom, coming back a bit drier than before, another to see him grab a drink from the counter, once more to see him pull out a laptop with stickers decorating the cover (one of a canadian flag, another a basketball, plus a few music notes scattered across), and he took one last glance to read the name off the top of a paper he pulled out. </p><p>He wasn’t trying to be creepy, he just happened to take a peek and noticed hand-writing scratched at the top of the paper. Unfortunately, the paper was owned by two people: Kevin Moon and Jacob Bae.</p><p>Hyunjae huffed, upset that he wasn’t able to be a detective like he imagined himself to be. </p><p>He looked out the window and noticed the rain letting up and decided that he would quit staring at this stranger and make a run for home. As he took his cup to the counter, he noticed the boy packing up his bag out of the corner of his eye. The boy suddenly looked up, straight towards Hyunjae, so Hyunjae quickly looked away and prayed the blush spreading across his face would disappear.</p><p>He quickly walked back to his table, going around tables instead of directly towards it in order to avoid the boy now heading to the corner. Hyunjae wasted no time grabbing his bag and bolting out the door.</p><p>The boy at the counter turned around at the sound of the door opening, only to see the cute boy he had bumped into quickly heading down the sidewalk and out of sight.</p><p>The boy smiled to himself, playing with the idea that that boy had been staring at him just moments ago and that the blush covering the boy's ears was for him, before heading back to his table, grabbing his bag, and heading the opposite direction of said boy.</p><p>Neither of them noticed the similarity in their bags nor that they had grabbed the wrong one.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>ahhhh I feel so nervous posting this! This probably won’t be very long, but I’ll try to update quickly, or at least weekly! Thank you for reading, I hope you like it so far.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. panic</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>hyunjae finding out something is a bit wrong with his bag... and then panicking (read: hyunjae is afraid of the police #theft and (not written) what his mother would think of him, a thief (not really a thief))</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>i’m sooooo soo so sorry i took so long to update this.. school really picked up and even right now I should be studying but here we are.. me desperately trying to avoid a chem test through hyunjae shy prose...</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Hyunjae was setting his bag in his chair and flopping down on his bed when his phone started chiming. He rolled over, blindly grabbing at the blankets in search of the source before finally landing on it, twisting around a bit more to lie on his stomach and hit the answer button. </p><p>“Hello?”</p><p>“Hi. Hey. I need a favor,” quickly traveled through the small speakers of the phone and into Hyunjae’s ears, then some weird reactions took place in his brain and he understood his friend Eric was annoying. </p><p>He sighed before sitting up, “What is it?”</p><p>Hyunjae could hear Eric take a breath and so he mentally prepared to end up doing whatever task needed to be done. “I’m stuck at the dance studio but I promised the student council I would drop off the festival flyers by today,” Eric quickly stated, “but since I can’t leave, I was hoping my good friend and roommate who has access to the flyers sitting on my desk could grab and deliver them for me?”</p><p>Hyunjae already knew he was gonna do it, and Eric knew it too, but he didn’t want to agree that easily, “and if this amazing roommate isn’t home?”</p><p>Eric laughed before quickly stopping- Hyunjae rolled his eyes- and decided to be nice, “Hyunjae, are you home?”</p><p>Hyunjae could practically see Eric fake, puppy blinking his eyes, “Yes.”</p><p>Eric’s voice turned sweeter, “well my wonderful friend, would you please do me this favor?”</p><p>Hyunjae thought about saying no for a minute. Staying in his nice, now warm bed and not leaving and maybe thinking about the cute boy- “Yeah, yeah, you owe me though.”</p><p>Eric smiled (Hyunjae could practically hear it in his voice), “Thank you! I have to get back, but I’ll bring dinner tonight, okay?”</p><p>Hyunjae agreed and they said their goodbyes, and then he laid still for a minute. He already missed the relief of being at home, but then he shoved off his bed anyway and grabbed his bag, heading for Eric’s room and a stack of flyers he was now in charge of.</p><p>When he went to put the papers in his bag, he noticed a pin on the flap of his bag. His eyebrows furrowed, because he didn’t previously have anything decorating his bag. When he looked closer, he found it was a small Canadian flag pinned to it.</p><p>Even more confused, he opened the bag and started looking inside. He gasped when he found a computer with stickers all over it, which were recently ingrained in his memory. He dived away from the bag, suddenly nervous.</p><p>He stole the cute boy’s bag. </p><p>He got up and approached the bag cautiously, as if it could summon the boy and maybe the police (is this real theft??? Hyunjae didn’t want to go to jail). He pulled out a few of the papers and found one from earlier, the names “Jacob Bae” and “Kevin Moon” scrawled across the top. Unfortunately, the boy never seemed to identify himself on any of his other papers, so Hyunjae still had yet to figure out which one this boy was. </p><p>And then came the real problem- how was he going to get it back to him?</p><p>Then Hyunjae realized another thing. He didn’t have his bag. He grabbed the flyers, shoved them into his borrowed bag and ran for the coffee shop.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. puddles</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I finished my classes for the semester *rejoices*!!! so hopefully I will be much better at regular updating *tries to pinkie promise* </p><p> </p><p>for those who read the previous chapter when the bag had a J on it (i've edited it now im sorry im stupid), it is now a canadian flag! hyunjae would be smart enough to now j = jacob bae so please ignore the mess i am new at this</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Despite checking every booth and table, probably annoying the people every time he crouched down to look under each table, and begging the baristas if they had any information on his missing bag, Hyunjae left the cafe without finding anything. </p><p>He also didn’t give up the bag he had taken- he had a growing suspicion of where his bag might be, although he didn’t know what to do. Hyunjae walked through the empty street, puddles still populating the sidewalk and streets. </p><p>His phone chimed. "have u gotten the flyers? they need to be dropped off by 3 🥺 🥺", Eric had written. Hyunjae sighed, shouldered the Bag-That-Wasn’t-His, decided to deal with a problem he could handle, and headed towards campus.</p><p>Hyunjae was mildly popular- Eric would argue and say Hyunjae is “the campus hottie” but he thought the younger was exaggerating. He had a lot of friends across campus, so it wasn’t hard to find where the student council was meeting. His best friend was one of the class representatives, so he figured he could hand the flyers off to him.</p><p>When he arrived at the political science building, he was met by a flurry of activity. Students were running around with posters and decorations, standing in groups brainstorming throughout the hallway, and pushing past Hyunjae to get out the door for some mission. A few people he recognized nodded or smiled at him, and one girl pointed out where the main council was meeting.</p><p>As he approached the room, the door was pushed over by Juyeon, his friend on the council. Juyeon’s eyes widened in surprise for a moment at seeing his friend, but then he smiled and jogged towards him. </p><p>“Did you bring Eric’s flyers? I forget he had texted saying you were dropping them off,” Juyeon said as he came to a stop in front of Hyunjae. “Yep, I’ve got the important papers,” Hyunjae said before moving to open Not-His-Bag. </p><p>Juyeon started walking backwards, quickly asking, “Wait, I’m running late for my practice, can you just go in and hand those over to Kevin for me?”</p><p>Hyunjae stopped pulling the papers out of his bag to stare at Juyeon dumbstruck, “Kevin?” Juyeon, already at the end of the corner replied, “Yeah, Kevin Moon, he’ll take those from you, thanks!” before disappearing and leaving Hyunjae to stand frozen in the hall.</p><p>Hyunjae must have stood in that empty, somehow quiet hallway away from the bustling activity and important meeting just a few meters away for at least 15 minutes. He couldn’t believe himself, it’s not like he knew for sure the bag belonged to Kevin Moon, but then if it did he would have to walk in and embarrassingly apologize for stealing his bag. </p><p>After a few more minutes of inner turmoil, Hyunjae strode confidently towards the door and threw it open, tired of being afraid. Unfortunately, flinging said door open caused the whole council to turn and stare and that immediately made any confidence Hyunjae had conjured disappear. He could feel his ears turning pink, and quietly apologized before surveying the room. So far, no sign of the possible owner of the bag, and so he breathed out a sigh of relief.</p><p>He approached one of the tables, where half the council was reviewing papers while across the room a group was reviewing a white board with scribbles of drawings and plans across it.</p><p>“I’m looking for Kevin Moon? Juyeon told me I could pass off these festival flyers to him?” Hyunjae called out, still scanning the room for the boy. Before anyone from the table of planners could respond, a voice called out from the group at the whiteboard, “Oh, that would be me!”</p><p>Hyunjae turned, his heart slowing down half a beat before going into overdrive, and found the little group parting for a dark haired boy in a button up and sweater to make his way towards Hyunjae. Hyunjae breathed out the breath he forgot he was holding, it wasn’t him. This Kevin Moon must just be the real unknown boy’s- now knowingly named Jacob Bae- partner for some music paper. </p><p>“Ah, yes! These are the flyers from Eric!” Hyunjae started opening the bag to hand over the papers, when Kevin stopped him, “Wait, are you by any chance the boy from the cafe?”</p><p>Hyunjae’s heart stopped.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. whispers</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>hyunjae and jacob meet and actually talk!! well they whisper and text but yes lets go milcob</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>yeahhhh.. im the worst. this is an established fact. now what if i told you ive been sitting with this chapter in my docs since the night i posted the previous one... i just couldnt be happy with it, and it stopped everything. but im trying to get past that so just bear with me.. anyway here you go lovelies!! ... (tries to hold myself back from hyunjae hiding his face in his hands at any moment of possible embarrassment)...</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Hyunjae looked up quickly, “What?”</p><p>Kevin laughed, putting his hands up to reassure him, “Sorry! I was just wondering if you were the guy my friend accidentally swapped bags with.” Kevin moved to point at the bag, “He has a bag just like this with a pin like that.”</p><p>Hyunjae was freaked out. Here he thought he was safe, but instead this Kevin Moon knew all about what happened. “Oh, yes, I’m sorry to your friend I didn’t mean to take it!” Hyunjae quickly apologized, ducking his head in a mini bow, not knowing where to go from there.</p><p>When Hyunjae looked up, Kevin was silently laughing, but tried to stop when Hyunjae raised his eyebrows in confusion. “It’s not a big deal! He isn’t mad or anything!” Kevin said. Hyunjae sighed, relieved the boy hadn’t been angry, especially when it must have inconvenienced him. Before he could offer to hand the flyers and bag over to Kevin so he could handle it, he went on, “Actually, he is at the library right now and probably needs his bag, could you take it to him? I’ll give you his number so you can find him!” </p><p>Hyunjae paused, thinking through this offer- he could get his bag back, which contained his laptop and assignments that would then be due on Monday, but it would mean meeting Jacob and talking to him.</p><p>Unfortunately, he really did need his bag, so he would have to confront his mistake. Kevin was already pulling out his phone to give Hyunjae his friend’s number, before Hyunjae had even confirmed that he wanted it. He grudgingly pulled his own phone out of his pocket, and copied the number over. </p><p>“Oh, and his name is Jacob Bae! I forgot you might need that,” Kevin laughed, and before Hyunjae could think, he replied, “I know.” He mentally slapped himself, embarrassed for announcing that. But Kevin just gave him a look and gathered the papers from Hyunjae’s hands, “Thanks for these! Tell Eric I’ll check him off the list!”</p><p>Hyunjae smiled and nodded, and left the room. When he was in the safe empty hallway, he looked down at his hand holding his phone with The Number. Just 10 digits and a name, and he wanted to hide behind something. </p><p>Before he could talk himself out of it, he typed out a quick message to Jacob.</p><p>
  <b> Hyunjae </b><br/>
<i> Hi, is this Jacob?<br/>
This is Lee Hyunjae, I was at the cafe earlier and accidentally grabbed your bag instead of mine. Your friend Kevin gave me your number. Could we meet so we can trade bags? I’m sorry by the way. </i>
</p><p>
  <b></b>
</p><p>
  <b></b>
</p><p>A few minutes passed before his phone chimed.</p><p> <b> Jacob </b><br/>
<i> hey! it’s okay!! don’t worry about it!<br/>
i’m at the library rn if you want to meet me! </i></p><p><b> Hyunjae </b><br/>
<i> Ah, okay great, I’ll head there now.</i></p><p><b> Jacob </b><br/>
<i> okay cool! see you soon </i></p><p>Hyunjae closed out of his messages and stared at his reflection in the black screen. His hair was curling in its effort to dry, and he hadn’t changed his clothes aside from his shoes and socks before he left his apartment. He looked a bit rumpled, which wouldn’t be the best second impression, but he was soaking in the first so he guessed it could be worse. He hiked Jacob’s bag up on his shoulder and headed for the library. </p><p>When he arrived at the library, he pulled out his phone to ask Jacob where he was, but was surprised by a few messages from Jacob saying where to find him. Hyunjae took a breath and went inside. He found him with a group of other students working on a project.</p><p>Before Hyunjae could say anything, Jacob looked up at him and smiled. While Hyunjae was busy figuring how to stop himself from diving behind the nearest bookshelf, Jacob whispered something to his group mates and then came over to where Hyunjae was standing.</p><p>“Hi,” Jacob spoke softly, “thanks for meeting me!” </p><p>Hyunjae smiled easily at Jacob, unable to stop it from spreading to his eyes, “Of course, I’m sorry I grabbed your bag.” Hyunjae bowed quickly again, but Jacob stopped him quickly, “No it’s no problem! Here, let me grab your bag!”</p><p>Jacob quickly shuffled back towards his group and grabbed Hyunjae’s bag sitting next to his chair before returning to stand in front of Hyunjae. Jacob’s blond hair had dried a bit wavy, and he was still wearing the clothes from before- a green and black hoodie with the front tucked into his jeans with a belt- and when he smiled he revealed his bunny like teeth. He was just as cute as he remembered, Hyunjae mentally noted. </p><p>They traded bags, and Hyunjae apologized again while Jacob reassured him everything was fine and he wasn’t inconvenienced at all. Hyunjae thought that would be the end of this ordeal, but then Jacob softly asked, “So, are you a math major or something?”</p><p>Hyunjae’s eyes widened while Jacob explained, “Oh, um sorry I kinda looked through your bag a bit when I realized that it wasn’t mine. I noticed it was mostly math papers so I just thought..?” His words softly tapered off, leaving room for Hyunjae to answer, “Kind of, I’m in finance.”</p><p>Jacob nodded, waiting for Hyunjae to speak again, and Hyunjae realized he should probably keep the conversation going. “I also saw some of your papers when I noticed the bag didn’t belong to me,” Hyunjae laughed, “are you in the music school?” </p><p>“Oh! I’m actually a sports medicine major, I just take a few music classes because I love it,” Jacob shared, his soft voice making Hyunjae want to lean closer. Jacob continued, “So, do you-”</p><p>However, he was cut off by one of his project partners whisper yelling at him, “Hey can you get back over here and actually help? We aren’t gonna do your work for you!” Jacob blanched, turning around and uttering a soft sorry, then going to smile apologetically at Hyunjae. Before he could though, Hyunjae had stepped past him and confronted the guy, “Hey, you shouldn’t speak to him like that. It’s literally been two minutes, I think it’ll be okay.”</p><p>The guy scoffed and slumped back into his seat, rolling his eyes at Hyunjae. Hyunjae rolled his eyes back, ignoring the interested looks from the rest of Jacob’s group and turning back towards Jacob. </p><p>Hyunjae wasn’t prepared for the grateful look Jacob gave him, a warm smile that reached his eyes, before Jacob softly spoke again, “Sorry about that.”</p><p>Hyunjae wanted to tell him that he shouldn’t apologize, that no one should speak to others like that, but before he could, Jacob was moving on. “I should probably let you go, you must’ve had to rush over here to bring me my bag.” </p><p>“No, don’t worry about it! It’s my fault anyway…” Hyunjae trailed off. Jacob shook his head, “It’s fine! But I’ll let you get back to your day. Maybe we’ll see each other some other time, yeah?” </p><p>Hyunjae smiled at that, “Yeah, maybe.” He pulled his hand up in a small wave, as Jacob returned the smile warmly and then stepped backwards toward his table. Hyunjae had almost turned around when Jacob suddenly spoke again, “Wait! You have something…” </p><p>Before Hyunjae could understand what he meant, Jacob was carefully pulling something from out of his hair. Hyunjae froze, watching slowly as Jacob stared at his hair, eyebrows drawn together in concentration and his mouth set in a small pout. Jacob presented a leaf to Hyunjae, his proud smile displaying his bunny teeth. Hyunjae suddenly felt very hot, like all the blood rushed to his head way too fast, and he covered his face quickly with his hands. Jacob laughed, “I got it! Okay, <i> now </i> I’ll let you go.” </p><p>Jacob mentions another “goodbye” and “see you later,” Hyunjae recalls, before turning away. Hyunjae stood still for a moment, watching him head back to his table, then he turned, leaving the library and Jacob behind.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. lights</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>good evening kind people</p><p>I am once again apologizing for how long it takes me to write, but (for the 13 time) I'm going to try and be better! School kinda is a pain, but writing this made me happy so. Yeah. </p><p>I have no idea what sports medicine majors have to take, but when I looked it up there was chemistry, and I have taken chemistry so. Jacob is now struggling through a chem class just like me. </p><p>Anyways, thank you and I hope you are doing alright &lt;3 okay I'm sorry for rambling.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Time passed slowly after that. Except time never moves slowly. Hyunjae’s classes garnered speed, shuttling him towards exams and paper due dates, holding him by his foot and dragging him to where the next module sat on a throne for him to look up towards. He shuffled through assignments and meetings, an impending fatigue slowly covering his muscles, whispering for him to slow down, just lay down for a minute. But Hyunjae ignored the heaviness in his limbs, shook himself awake, and promised himself he would finish the notes before finding dinner.</p><p>He hadn’t seen Jacob since the library. Or rather, he hadn’t spoken to Jacob since the library. He <i>saw</i> Jacob everywhere, in hallways laughing softly with friends, walking down sidewalks with the leaves falling around him with his hands stuffed in his pockets and earbuds delicately placed in his ears, across libraries with glasses falling down his nose as he dozed off into his books, and in random buildings waiting for his classes to begin, not noticing Hyunjae diving behind anything he could before he was caught staring. It was like Hyunjae could <i>only</i> see Jacob, like a frequency illusion. Even if it was just a glimpse, a passing glance or a sighting around a corner, Hyunjae would notice. He knew of Jacob, and therefore, he had to know Jacob.</p><p>He tried not to think much of it, but it seemed the less he tried to think, the more it took to sprouting at the corner of his thoughts, slowly edging into his vision. </p><p>Jacob never seemed to see him. And Hyunjae almost hoped he really didn’t– it would be so much worse if Jacob was ignoring him on purpose. But Jacob truly seemed preoccupied and distracted by friends, books, or whatever else might luckily capture his attention. Hyunjae once caught Jacob walking with his face lifted slightly towards the clouds, wind sweeping his soft bangs off his forehead and pushing his hands out by his side, outstretched to feel the breeze. It felt like a movie, like the winter sky wanted to open up for him, and grant a single ray of sunshine to fall on Jacob’s face.</p><p>Hyunjae didn’t interrupt the scene. He couldn’t. Maybe another day, he would tell himself; or the next time you see him, he promised. But every time, Jacob looked so happy or lost in his own world, Hyunjae wouldn’t dare break the spell. So instead, he would continue walking, continue looking at his own books, or continue listening to his friends or professor speak. He would continue on with time, which was more than happy to pick him up and string him along. Time was always there, whether it be creeping or guiding. It took Hyunjae through the days, the weeks, and then the months. And Hyunjae let it, trusting it to get him to wherever he needed to be.</p><p>Hyunjae finally finished his chapter, shutting the book with victory and running his fingers over the deep pen marks, now ingrained in his notebook. He stretched, arching his back and rolling his shoulders. He checked his watch: 10:27 p.m. Hyunjae leaned back in his chair, slowly tipping onto the back legs but still balanced, and weighed his options.</p><p>Should he search in his pantry and settle for something hidden in it after staring at the limited possibilities for much too long? Or maybe he should just beg Eric to bring him food on his way back from the studio? He sighed, leaning forward and letting his chair back onto all fours. His back was aching after hours of being stuck to his desk, so he decided to walk somewhere for food. He needed the stretch and movement. So he got up slowly, grabbed his keys and wallet, swung his jacket over his shoulders, and slipped on his shoes. He headed out, breathing in the cool night air, grateful for its refreshing hug. As he was walking, he suddenly felt the need for caffeine, so he veered towards the small cafe nearby.</p><p>The door jingled as he walked in, the warm air covering his cold, pink cheeks and giving life back to his fingertips. He ordered and thanked the guy at the register, grabbing his drink and curling his fingers around the warmth. As he stepped away from the counter, Hyunjae scanned the little place, trying to decide if he should take his drink and go or relax here for a minute. </p><p>As his eyes flitted over the half-lit room, he suddenly locked eyes with a guy tucked into a booth across the table crowded area. </p><p>Jacob grinned immediately, raising his hand to wave. Hyunjae pivoted towards him without thinking, but hesitated. He stood with a buffering icon over his head for a moment, then forced his legs to move and walked towards the cute boy. Jacob pointed at the seat across from him, so Hyunjae gladly took it.</p><p>“Hey! It's been awhile!” Jacob said. Hyunjae gave him half a smile, “Yeah, I’ve been busy. School, you know?” Jacob sighed and ran a hand over his face. He gestured to the papers spread out in front of him, “Don’t I know it.”</p><p>Hyunjae grimaced at the piles of sheets and books, pens scattered haphazardly across the table. He picked up one of the papers and studied it. There were chemical equations and problems scrawled across the page, question marks and checks decorating the words. In the corners, there were small scales drawn, with notes fluttered onto the lines like falling petals. He pushed the paper back towards Jacob, who smiled sheepishly at his mess.</p><p>“So, if you need one, do you want to take a break with me?” Jacob asked. Hyunjae tilted his head, “Actually, I was about to get dinner, would you like to come with me?”</p><p>Jacob looked surprised for a moment, but it quickly cleared from his face and a grin reached his eyes, “I would love to! I’m actually starving.” He pouted for a moment, sticking out his bottom lip and cutely scrunching his brows. Hyunjae laughed, covering his smile with his hand. Jacob started gathering his papers before placing them in his bag– The Bag.</p><p>Hyunjae couldn’t look away: The Bag, which in this very cafe, helped him to meet Jacob. Even if nothing else were to happen, it would still be a moment, a time, a memory for Hyunjae. He smiled, happy that moment had expanded, encompassing them in a tiny bubble of time, and that they were now going to dinner together. He was too busy monologuing to himself with a small, stupid smile on his face, that he didn’t notice Jacob watching him, mirroring Hyunjae’s little smile, the look on his face beginning to resemble a tiny bit of fondness.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>hehehe I hope you liked this! I've already started on my next chapter so I Will Be Trying Harder :D have a great day, or night, lovelies</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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